Zach Johnson Wins Kaulig Championship as Firestone's PGA Era Comes to a Close

Zach Johnson's six-shot victory Sunday closed the book on the final Kaulig Companies Championship at Firestone Country Club, ending a series of tournaments that have brought professional golf to Akron for decades.

After shooting a bogey-free 63 on Saturday, Johnson was able to hang on to his lead and win the tournament, shooting 68 on the par-70 course to finish 15-under, six strokes ahead of runner-up Boo Weekley. It’s Johnson’s third win on the PGA Tour Champions, which he just became eligible for when he turned 50 in February.

“(Saturday) was cookie cutter easy,” Johnson says. “It was nice to get a little electricity going (Sunday).”

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Johnson bogeyed two of his first four holes Sunday, but recovered on the back nine, hitting par putts on 14 and 15 before finishing with three straight birdies, including a chip-in to seal the win on the 18^th hole.

“You can’t fake it here,” Johnson says. “This course required every element of my game here.”

The weekend also included a host of events, including a comedy show and live music performances from country acts The Shootouts, of Akron, and Bailey Zimmerman. John Daly, who withdrew after three rounds, was recognized in a Thursday event as an Ambassador of Golf.

Next year, the PGA Tour Champions’ fifth major heads to Newport Beach, California. It will be the first time Firestone doesn’t host a PGA golf tournament since 1954.

Throughout the weekend, fans and golfers alike rhapsodized about the course, with a certain amount of wistfulness combined with an element of hope that Firestone is too good of a course not to have a pro stop.

For more than seven decades, Firestone Country Club has been one of professional golf's most celebrated venues, hosting the PGA Championship three times and serving as the longtime home of the World Series of Golf before becoming a cornerstone of the World Golf Championships schedule. The game's biggest stars — from Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer to Tiger Woods, whose eight victories at Firestone remain one of the course's defining legacies — have won on its famed South Course, including the iconic 667-yard 16th hole known as "The Monster."

Since 2019, the Kaulig Companies Championship has carried on that tradition as one of the PGA Tour Champions' five major championships, extending Firestone's place among America's most storied championship golf venues.

“I love this place,” Johnson says. “I’ve loved it since I first stepped foot on it.”

“This course could host a major in a heartbeat,” says Rory Sabbatini, who also played in the weekend’s tournament.

Most wistful among them perhaps is the a small army of volunteers that keep the tournament rolling. Nick Adolph, one of the event’s volunteer chairmen, said that this year, there are 540 volunteers, some of whom made it a point to work at the tournament in its last year.

He’s been working officially at the tournament for 16 years, but his involvement goes back even farther, being at the course for the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational as a child. He’s a comparative pup. His brother’s been there 18 years, his father’s been there for 35 years, and his grandfather just got his pin for being a volunteer for 60 years. Even the volunteers he’s not related to, he feels close to.

“It’s a family reunion for the volunteers,” he says. “It’s a lot of fun on a beautiful golf course.”

Larry Emery, volunteering as a hole captain in what he calls a “hard-hat area” between the second and eighth fairways, remains positive another event will come to Firestone.

“This is such a classic course,” he says. “I’m optimistic.”

The event also holds a special place in gallery members’ hearts. Suzanne Papsun of Darien, Connecticut, goes to seven or eight Champions events every year – enough that she exchanged pleasantries with golfers and caddies who recognized her.

“Funny thing. I’ve been to 250 events and I’ve never played a round in my life,” she says. “I’m really going to miss this. I love this course.”